By Robert Goldrich
A trio of duos, another director grappling with the sheer volume of submitted content for YouTube’s “Life in a Day,” a commercialmaker/Academy Award-nominated short filmmaker whose initial feature sports a cast that includes Robert De Niro, a documentarian who’s diversified into spots and now into comedy with her first narrative fiction feature, and a director who’s made an auspicious spotmaking debut which entailed his returning to a town that was the backdrop for his acclaimed movie.
Add to this mix a director whose theatrical motion picture, which premiered last month at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, has generated arguably the biggest Oscar buzz of the current festival season. (This same director recently signed with a mainstay production house for commercials representation.)
Plus we have a director whose experimental short film reflects the storytelling promise of the iPad, a director and an editor who teamed as co-directors for the first time on what turned out to be a lauded, groundbreaking branded online series which then found another life as a TV show, a helmer who successfully navigated 3-D waters for his branded short, and a DGA Award-winning television director who’s making her comedic mark in sponsored entertainment and promos, as well as commercials.
This is just a sampling of the filmmakers featured in SHOOT’s fall edition Directors Series which includes individual profiles as well as an Up-And-Coming Directors feature story spotlighting the next generation of promising talent.
In addition, our ongoing “Then, Now and Looking Ahead” Series features insights from two leading directors–Tom Kuntz of MJZ, and director/cinematographer Lance Acord of Park Pictures.
Then in our companion Cinematographers Series, we meet a pair of DPs–one who has helped bring a new dimension to primetime television with the hit series Glee; and another whose filmography encompasses documentaries (including a long-time working relationship with Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney), narrative features (such as the acclaimed Darren Aronofsky film The Wrestler), and commercials.
So read on and enjoy this special fall edition. As always, we welcome your feedback. Click here to view interactive PDF version of SHOOT’s 2010 Fall DIRECTORS Issue.
Profiles
Nanette Burstein
Barney Cokeliss
Sean Ehringer
Dennie Gordon
John Hillcoat
Tom Hooper
Kris + Scott
Kevin McDonald
Gary McKendry
Features
Then, Now & Looking Ahead
Cinematographers & Cameras: Lens Crafters & Artists
Up-And-Coming Directors: The Fall Collection
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More